EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: All hail the Home Secretary!

Home Secretary Theresa May is the toast of the Tory backbenches following her successful extradition of Abu Hamza, the opt-out from 130 EU crime and justice laws and now her refusal to put Asperger’s sufferer Gary McKinnon on a plane to face charges in the US. Bookies have cut her odds on becoming the next Tory leader from 16/1 to 12/1.

Some excitable MPs compare the McKinnon decision to the moment in the movie Love Actually when a British PM stands up to Washington. A minister confides: ‘She’ll definitely stand if there’s a leadership election.’ Boris v Theresa might be a political attraction on a par with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in Zaire.

Could we be about to see Theresa May square up to Boris Johnson?

DOWNTON Abbey’s Earl of Grantham declared in a recent episode: ‘I’ve never trusted Catholics, there’s always been something of the “Johnny Foreigner” about them.’

An RC expert opines: ‘The upper classes have been anti-Catholic for centuries. Even today there are vestiges of it, even in the Royal Family.’ Not Downton’s creator, Julian Fellowes, surely. He’s a left-footer himself.

NEWS International boss Rupert Murdoch manages to spear detractors at the New York Times and the BBC with this message to Twitter fans: ‘Boring Sunday morning. Practically nothing in NYT. Look to new CEO [ex BBC Director General Mark Thompson] to shake up NYT unless recalled to BBC to explain latest scandal.’ Rupert’s 81 but doesn’t miss a trick.

According to a US report, he erupted when his partner of 14 years, actress and writer Jennifer Westfeldt, 42, asked about marriage, and is quoted as saying: ‘If you want to get married, go right ahead. There’s the door. Go find someone else to marry because it’s not going to be me!’ Love, a many-splendored thing.

WRITER Jeanette Winterson has been holidaying in Mexico with psychotherapist Susie Orbach, pictured, who is in a ‘post-heterosexual’ relationship with the lesbian author. They roosted at the Hemingway Hotel in Tulum, from which Winterson reports: ‘White sand. Cabin on beach. Turtles hatching. First holiday in 18 months. So happy. Lucky life.’ The guileless hotelier inquired: ‘Are you sisters?’

ENTERTAINER Rolf Harris, 82, announces: ‘I’m recording an album of folk songs, including duets with people like Sir Cliff Richard, Kate Bush and Bonnie Tyler.’ Isn’t it typical of big-hearted Rolf to allow this washed-up trio to piggyback on his success?

FIVE Live’s Victoria Derbyshire read out messages from listeners about their attitude towards the BBC after the Savile scandal, including this heartening tribute: ‘Apart from harbouring tax dodgers and paedophiles the BBC does a great job.’